Chasing 'local' angles' at the Republican National Convention

At any big event it's crucial to stay alert for just who might roll into town

[Trump and Nigel Farage have long been political allies. Image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

It’s an old adage of journalism that every big story has a local angle.

At its most dramatic, it might be a hometown paper telling the story of one of the 1,5000 people who died when HMS Titanic struck an iceberg on 15 April 1912 and disappeared into the North Atlantic.

Or it could be a television station interviewing the families of athletes before they set off for the Olympics in Paris, to hear about their hard work and dreams.

It was the pursuit of such a local angle that found me jogging down the street in polite pursuit of entertainer and activist Russell Brand, as he left the Republican National Convention last month, to ask him what he was doing there.

Given Brand’s often-stated desire to ask uncomfortable questions of the authorities, I’d hoped he would be happy to spare a moment to explain why he was among several noted Britons who’d been spotted at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee where the event was being held.

“Sir, can you tell us why you're at the RNC? Why are you here,” I asked the 49-year-old. “Are you supporting President Trump? Are you supporting Joe Biden?”

[Russell Brand sped away when asked to explain what he was doing at the RNC. Image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Brand did not pause, but rather increased his pace while members of his small team turned their iPhones towards me. It was all getting rather silly. Time to leave.

The attempt to speak to Brand was one of several instances during the week when, on assignment for The I paper, I tried to track down and speak to a host of well-known Britons who had descended on the convention - former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and Nigel Farage, the newly sworn-in Reform UK Member of Parliament.

There was a serious point to all of this. While Donald Trump was being formally voted in as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, and JD Vance named as his running mate, the presence of the four Britons pointed to a transatlantic conservative link that was worth exploring.

And were some of these individuals - Truss and Brand in particular - seeking to make a fresh start in the US?

Truss, 49, who is often mocked in the UK for serving only 45 days as prime minister before being forced to quit, is already known among some of the more hardline MAGA-type conservatives in America.

Earlier this year, she spoke at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference, where she claimed her efforts to reform Britain had been blocked by the “deep state”, the sort of allegation Trump often makes.

“I wanted to cut taxes, reduce the administrative state, take back control as people talked about in the Brexit referendum,” she said. “What I did face was a huge establishment backlash and a lot of it actually came from the state itself.”

As with Brand, I didn’t manage to speak to Truss, but learned she had held a series of meetings with Republican Party state delegations from places such as Texas and Kentucky.

It seems a number of those who met her were impressed. Johnathan Gay, a 50-year-old delegate and lawyer from Kentucky, said she “gave some powerful remarks” that were “very well received”. 

“I think everyone respects the challenge that she’s had to overcome in Great Britain and the job that she did as prime minister,” he added.

Last year, an investigation by several media outlets resulted in a series of women accusing Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period. He has denied the claims which are being investigated by two British police forces.

Brand’s popular YouTube channel was suspended, but he has instead been using the platform Rumble, to speak with people such as former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and has been interviewed by Tucker Carlson.

[Liz Truss (in red) has spoken at conservative events in US but is less known than fellow former Prime Minister Boris Johnson (r). Image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Greene, 50, who represents a super-conservative district north of Atlanta, told me of Brand: “I think he’s great.”

I had no luck tracking down Boris Johnson, but The Mirror reported it appeared the 60-year-old did not seem to have carried much star power. Rather, when he appeared with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, barely a dozen turned up to hear him speak.

Of the four Britons, it is probably Farage who is best known among the MAGA faithful, having met with Trump several times and campaigned for right -wing candidates at the request of Steve Bannon and others. Invariably, when he does speak, Farage is introduced as “Mr Brexit”.

I’d missed Farage when he arrived at the RNC. He had been forced to turn down the chance to speak at the convention as he had to attend the official opening of Parliament.  Instead, he said he wanted to visit Trump, who just days earlier had survived an assassination attempt. “I thought it was the right thing to do,” he told the BBC.

I phoned Farage, 60, and asked if he would invite Trump to pay a visit to his Clacton constituency in southern England. He chuckled. “Not at the moment, but maybe in the future.”

Many of the Americans attending the RNC felt it was significant that such a number of high-profile British conservatives were flying in for the event. In short, they believed the Trump-mania on display that week was also being felt in Britain.

[An estimated 50,000 visited Milwaukee to attend the RNC held at the Fiserv Forum. Image: Andrew Buncombe]

Greg Marsh, a 61-year-old delegate from Maine, said their presence would “help to further strengthen ties between the two nations both economically, militarily, and put us together on the world stage”.

He added: “I think the world is a better place when we are united in our common goals.”

A lot has changed since the conclusion of the RNC, when it appeared Trump and Vance were on an unstoppable path to the White House.

Biden has dropped out of the race, to be replaced by Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ nominee. 

She has already pulled even with Trump in the polls and overtaken him in some of the battleground states. She has also injected massive energy into a campaign that felt dead. 

Now the Democrats will hold their convention, in Chicago. 

I cannot wait to see how it all goes.